Tomato sauce that you make yourself is very easy and tastes so much better than canned sauce.
Heat some olive oil on medium in a medium pot with a lid.
Roughly crush 2-4 cloves of garlic, no need for a garlic press, just do it with your knife on a cutting board. Add the garlic to the oil along with about crushed red pepper flakes. You can go anywhere from a pinch of flakes to about a Tbsp.
Saute the garlic and pepper flakes for 30 seconds to a minute. Just until the edges of the start to turn brown--make sure your garlic doesn't brown!
Add tomato paste and cook and stir it in for about 30 seconds. Deglaze pot with a 1/4 cup of vodka.
Add a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes with basil, 14oz can tomato sauce, pinch of salt and pinch of black pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Finally stir in some heavy cream if you want the sauce to look more pink. Milk will also do, but the color won't be as dramatic. Add more salt to taste.
Whip some butter, add peanut butter and brown sugar. Mix in some eggs, one by one. Add flour and baking sugar. Stir in some chocolate chips. Bake until no longer gooey.
Polenta comes in two forms: soft (or creamy) and firm polenta. If you want soft polenta, you can serve this right out of the pot, or right after you've toasted the top in the oven. If you want firm polenta, you have to give it time to set up before cutting into it.
1 cup of milk (whole milk is best)
4 cups of water
2 cups of stone ground, course Corn Meal
1 tbsp of butter
black pepper
salt
Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium pot, combine the water, milk, butter, pepper to taste and a pinch of salt. Heat almost to the boiling point. Whisk in the corn meal slowly to prevent it from forming lumps. Turn down the heat to a simmer, whisking frequently. Cook until it is as thick as oatmeal.
2. Spread into 9x13 baking dish, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and some salt over the top. Bake until cheese melts and the polenta browns a little on top, about ten minutes.
3. Let the polenta cool until it firms. It won't firm up properly until it has cooled quite a bit, maybe 15-30 minutes.
Once it is firm, you should be able to cut it with a butter knife and each piece will hold it's shape. From here, you can brush it with oil or butter and grill it or fry for more flavor.
Recipe adapted from "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman.
Cara and I woke up this morning to two inches of snow! No worries, I was ready to whip up this spicy little dish.
Start with 28oz of peeled whole tomatoes, a can of Chipotles in Adobo, 2 cloves of minced garlic and four eggs.
Heat up a bit of olive oil, throw in the minced garlic and chipotle then cook for a minute. Mix in the tomatoes and cook them down for the next 15-20 minutes. While cooking, break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon so they are bite-sized.
Add four eggs, one by one, spaced apart and put a lid onthe frying pan. After 6-8 minutes the whites will be set but the yokes will be runny!
Thinly slice 4 large onions, saute until a golden brown, add Guinness beer and sherry vinegar, and 6 cups of beef stock. Then bread and cheese.
Cara and I made some brownies that were her mother's recipe, but we put one and a half bags of chocolate and peanut chips (seriously!) and they were a giant disaster.
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